Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

This is a map of all 50 states of the United States with traditional Big 10 college towns and their states highlighted in blue (Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania) or green (Nebraska).

Iowa City vs. Bloomington

May 18, 2026 / / 0 Comments

After last week’s post on the changes in Iowa City, I wanted to compare Iowa City to another college town. And since I used to live in Bloomington, Indiana, that’s my choice!

When I moved to Iowa City (from Bloomington) in August 2007, I saw Iowa City as a bit of a step down. Bloomington felt like a slightly larger city with a slightly larger university in a slightly larger state. I thought I would spend a few years in Iowa City before moving on to a larger city.

On top of this, I saw Bloomington through rose-colored lenses. Hailing from the middle of nowhere in rural southern Indiana, Bloomington stood out to me as an oasis in a barren wasteland. Surely Iowa City couldn’t match any of that.

But 20 years later, I’ve reconsidered my views on all of this. Maybe Bloomington isn’t quite the place I saw as an 18 year old. And perhaps Iowa City can more than hold its own.

Continue reading

A Break for Final Exams

May 11, 2026 / / 0 Comments

As I’ve mentioned, I’m making a return to the classroom this semester to teach a section of Intro to Philosophy at the University of Iowa.

Well, the semester’s coming to a close, and it’s final exam week! Along with everyone else associated with campus, this means I’m staying busy! When I’m not writing an exam, I’m proctoring one or grading one.

And so, I’ll be back next week at the usual time and place.

This is a photo of an Iowa corn field with a barn in the background.

Iowa After (Almost) 20 Years

May 4, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I moved to the purple state of Iowa in 2007. It had a Democratic governor and an ideologically diverse state legislature and political discourse. And it soon became the launching pad for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, our first black president.

Iowa was never perfect. My politics always sat well to the left of anyone who held office in 2007. But having moved here from Indiana, I found it a breath of fresh air. Compared to Indiana’s four decade long decline into hard conservatism, Iowa practically felt like California.

It doesn’t feel like California now. Looking back two decades later, I have to ask: what happened?

Continue reading

This is a photo of professional wrestler Hulk Hogan speaking in front of a Trump Vance sign, designed as a representation of the kayfabe presidency.

The Kayfabe Presidency

April 20, 2026 / / 0 Comments

We have no shortage of comparisons and metaphors for the Trump presidency! Let’s see how professional wrestling and kayfabe fit into that picture.

Many of these metaphors stem from the Great Fascism Debate, which I joined for some time before swearing it off. Among other problems, the “Trump as Hitler” and “Trump as Mussolini” move is lazy. Even worse, it commits the sin of lack of imagination.

But I’ve flirted with several comparisons myself. Entering the 2016 race as a media mogul using right-wing populism and a kayfabe personality to climb to the top, Trump looked remarkably similar to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

More interestingly, I compared Trump to trash TV character Al Bundy from Married with Children.

How’d that go? Bundy was a roughly middle class guy in suburban Chicago, so he’s not like Trump in terms of job or income. Rather, Bundy personified the Trump voter. He aired white male grievances at a variety of targets – a feminist neighbor, a woman boss, a Latina TV anchor, and so on.

However, these metaphors have all become tired. With that in mind, let’s return to that earlier word ‘kayfabe.’ Maybe it can offer us new clues.

Continue reading

« Older posts

© 2026 Base and Superstructure

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑